Define entertainment, produce a documentary, 3 people, 2 minutes, 2 weeks.  That was all the direction we had from Professor Craig in our CMGT 586 course on Entertainment Theory, Industry and Practice.   It sounded like fun, and producing this with our friends in MCM sounded even better.

We should have known better.

We agreed that we needed to filter through mass opinion and come up with a cohesive, over-arching message to effectively communicate what entertainment was. (Nice idea…in theory.)   Along with longer answers, we decided to produce a montage of people writing a one word answer on a white board  (creative, too? Geez). We allotted one full day to filming randomized shots all over LA to collect our b-roll, and if we needed more, we’d work around our schedules to get it. (FOOL PROOF!)

This is where it all went wrong.

That brilliant whiteboard idea? Turns out, getting strangers to comply was like recruiting for a game of tag on the freeway. While our interviews came out well, we needed more b-roll …which meant another day of shooting.  THEN we still had the editing.  Imagine what happens when you lock three tired, controlling, indecisive, caffeine-addicts in a single room on a time crunch, in between work, internships, other school projects, and attempts to sleep.  The deadline loomed and we had to upload it…JUST IN TIME…before we killed each other.  BUT then…

THIS happened…click PLAY.  While it may have taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (really just sweat, because it was August in LA), we did it. The best part was the smile on Professor Craig’s face…and the oohs and aaahs from the crowd. As it turns out, defining entertainment is hard.  Making entertainment is even harder.  But it’s pretty amazing when it happens.

NICOLE, HAOBIN, AND VIBISH (MCM 2016)